The cause of this debilitating and often hard-to-treat condition is poorly understood.

With obesity on the rise, there is growing concern about the long-term neurological effects of children exposed to maternal obesity in pregnancy.

"Given that overweight and obesity are potentially modifiable risk factors, prevention of obesity in women of reproductive age may be an important public health strategy to reduce the incidence of epilepsy," the authors wrote.

What is epilepsy?

Epilepsy is a disorder of brain function that takes the form of recurring convulsive or non-convulsive seizures.

It is not just one condition; rather it is a diverse family of disorders comprising many seizure types.

There are seizures that are not epileptic such as those that result from diabetes, kinked blood vessels and a range of other health conditions.

It is estimated that over 800,000 people in Australia will be diagnosed with epilepsy at some stage in life.

Bernadette White, the clinical director of obstetrics at the Mercy Hospital for Women in Melbourne, said the study definitely piqued her interest.

Did the findings surprise her? Not exactly.

"In some ways it's not all that surprising because [the study's authors] mention some of the reasons for the link are things we already know to be associated with obesity, like neuro abnormalities and greater risks of diabetes," Dr White said.

"It sheds more light on the complexity of obesity and how many implications it has."

We know there's a link, but what's the cause?

While this study appears to have found a link between obesity during pregnancy and epilepsy, the causal connection remains to be proven.

One possible reason for this increased risk, according to the authors of the study, is that being overweight or obese may increase the risk of brain injury, leading to a range of neurodevelopmental disorders and epilepsy could result from that disorder.

Another possible reason is that maternal obesity might affect neuro-development through obesity-induced inflammation.

Dr White said that, while offering theories, finding the causal link between obesity and epilepsy needed further investigation.

"One of the things becoming apparent with obesity is that its a complex condition," she said.

"We already know obesity during pregnancy can lead to an increase in high blood pressure and that obese women may require injections of folic acid … and that obesity is linked to increased complications in pregnancy."

She believes that while studies like this reinforce to women that obesity is not healthy, it could come across as fodder — just another risk in a long line of health risks.

"I think it's one more thing to tell obese women but it's not going to change these women," Dr White said.

Instead, Dr White believes getting a better understanding of the cause of obesity and epilepsy could lead to finding other ways of trying to break the link, rather than telling women they need to lose weight.